28: Chapter 28 The Sniper in the Rainy Night

The morning rain fell with a sinister quality.

The air was filled with a pungent, sour, rotting stench, like a mix of rotten eggs and rust.

The expert on TV was still talking nonsense with a straight face: "The acid rain is just industrial exhaust settling due to the change of seasons; everyone, do not panic."

Shen Qingyue, wrapped in a silk bathrobe and sporting dark circles under her eyes, crawled up from that king-size bed that once belonged to her and Lin Yuan.

She hadn't slept well all night; her right eyelid was twitching wildly, and she felt like something bad was going to happen.

Rustle... rustle...

A strange scratching sound came from outside the door.

Shen Qingyue's heart skipped a beat. She stepped into her slippers and walked lightly toward the entryway.

"Who's out there?"

There was no response.

Only the dull sound of rain hitting the security door.

Shen Qingyue swallowed a mouthful of saliva and leaned toward the peephole to look outside.

In the gray curtain of rain, there was nothing but the ornamental trees in her own yard.

But that strange sound was still there.

One by one, it scratched at her heart.

Shen Qingyue suddenly pulled open the heavy solid wood door.

Cold wind mixed with rain poured in.

At the same time, a thick, nauseating smell of blood flooded in.

Buzz—

Shen Qingyue's brain felt like it had been struck by a sledgehammer, and her eyeballs trembled violently.

Below the white marble steps, four men lay neatly.

Their legs were broken backward at extremely bizarre angles.

Dark red blood mixed with rainwater and dripped down the steps.

What made one's scalp tingle the most was this:

Around the necks of these four men, who had fainted from the pain, someone had used men's ties to tie four exquisite bows in a display of extremely twisted humor.

"Ah——!!!"

A scream pierced the tranquility of the villa area.

Shen Qingyue's legs went weak, and she collapsed onto the cold floor.

A stream of warm liquid flowed uncontrollably down the base of her thighs, instantly soaking through her silk bathrobe.

Staining the carpet worth over a hundred thousand beneath her feet with an embarrassing dark patch.

She had lost control of her bladder.

The once high-and-mighty female CEO of Xinghui Group, who boasted of controlling everything, crawled backward using her hands and feet.

Even her teeth were chattering uncontrollably.

Call the police! Yes, call the police!

She tremblingly took out her phone, her finger hovering over "110," but she couldn't bring herself to press it.

The suit trousers and leather shoes—she was too familiar with them.

Weren't these the members of the top private detective team in Jiangcheng that she had spent one million to hire three days ago?!

Once the police intervened and found out she had hired people to stalk her ex-husband, she, who had just been kicked out of the company, would be completely ruined.

"You will be ten thousand times more miserable than you are now..."

Lin Yuan's words exploded in her mind like a nightmare.

Shen Qingyue finally understood that the man who used to be completely obedient to her was dead.

The one alive now was a demon that had crawled out of hell.

Extreme regret and panic engulfed her.

She tremblingly took out her phone, instinctively wanting to call her best friend, He Manman.

It was He Manman who had connected her with these detectives.

"Beep... I'm sorry, the number you are calling is currently busy."

Hung up instantly.

Called again, unable to connect.

That "good best friend" who was still giving her advice on the phone last night had found out about the detectives' failure even earlier than her and had gone off the grid.

How could a refined egoist like He Manman dare to get involved in such a life-threatening mess?

"Lin Yuan... you are a devil... you lunatic..."

She threw her phone on the ground in despair, curled up in the corner holding her knees, and began to wail.

Finally.

In extreme despair, she dialed a number she hadn't contacted in a long time.

"Mom..."

...

Noon. Rose Garden Apartments.

Unlike the gloomy atmosphere of Xiangshan Villa, Apartment 1201 was filled with the faint scent of jasmine and the warmth of a meal.

Lin Yuan sat at the head of the dining table and put down his chopsticks.

Before he could reach for a tissue, Su Xiaonuan had already leaned forward, holding a warm, damp towel, and gently and skillfully wiped the corners of his mouth.

Then, she beat Wang Ya to it and efficiently cleared the dishes.

Lin Yuan glanced at Su Xiaonuan and stood up to say.

"This afternoon, you and Wang Ya go buy a car; it'll be convenient for running errands. Then go secure the diesel."

"The first batch of diesel, take it to the Hongfa Meat Processing Plant first. Fill up all the backup generator sets at the meat processing plant."

"Take the rest to Tiangong No. 1 and give it to Lu Yan."

Su Xiaonuan stopped what she was doing, her back instantly straightening.

"Understood, Boss Lin."

Wang Ya was standing to the side holding a plate, her fingers tightening slightly.

Lin Yuan had already revealed the news of the apocalypse to her.

She didn't ask many questions, let alone question him.

After all, besides this man in front of her, who else could she trust?

Lin Yuan nodded, grabbed the george patton car keys from the coffee table, and pushed the door open to leave.

Two in the afternoon.

Western Suburbs, Cloud Top Palace.

The roar of heavy machinery was deafening.

Fat Dragon was indeed a man of action; he had brought in three professional underground engineering teams in just one morning.

Working in conjunction with Baldy's men, the outer wall was already taking shape.

Lin Yuan didn't wear a hard hat, letting the drizzle fall onto his black windbreaker.

He walked with one hand in his pocket, shoulder-to-shoulder with Lu Yan through the unfinished internal structure.

"The progress on the perimeter is good. Note down the plans for the interior."

Lin Yuan looked at the blueprints and issued instructions directly.

"The first floor will serve as a fully functional reception and defense level."

Lin Yuan pointed to the entrance on the blueprint.

"Install 20cm thick steel alloy rolling shutters on the windows."

"Also, dig a swimming pool in the living area and build a private cinema."

Lu Yan recorded quickly in his notebook.

For his daughter, let alone building a palace, even if Lin Yuan asked him to bomb the Pentagon right now, he would go strap on the explosives without hesitation.

Lin Yuan continued.

"The second floor is the living area and infirmary."

"The infirmary must be fully equipped with sterile surgical equipment and ventilators."

Lu Yan's eye twitched—surgery? But his hand didn't stop.

What he didn't know was that after the zombie virus outbreak, the blood of a C-rank Healing-type Esper would be the only raw material for creating life-saving serum.

Lin Yuan had to prepare the hardware in advance.

"The third floor, connect the communication terminals."

"Find a way to purchase permanent usage rights for several satellites."

The two walked down the stairs toward the basement.

"Basement level 1, warehouse. The cold storage must be completed within ten days."

"Basement level 2, utilize the geographical advantages of this place to drill deep wells for geothermal power generation as the main power source."

"Use diesel generator sets as a backup. Drill the groundwater extraction system to below 200 meters and install multi-stage nano-filtration."

"Finally, basement level 3." Lin Yuan stopped walking. "I want ten completely independent titanium alloy sealed chambers, equipped with their own independent oxygen circulation and electric shock restraint systems."

A chill inexplicably ran up Lu Yan's spine.

This specification wasn't for refuge at all, but for imprisoning some kind of extremely dangerous beast.

Lin Yuan put away the blueprints and looked at Lu Yan. "Can you do it?"

"As long as the money and equipment are in place, yes."

Lu Yan closed his notebook.

Night fell.

Jiangcheng was shrouded in a layer of sticky acid rain.

The windshield wipers scraped muddy streaks across the glass.

Seven in the evening.

Lin Yuan was driving the george patton.

Lu Yan was sitting in the passenger seat.

The nearly two-meter-tall giant "Tank" and the ghost-like "Shadow" were sitting in the back seat.

The three were fully armed, wearing black tactical vests, their waists bulging, and tactical knives strapped to their outer thighs.

Lin Yuan controlled the steering wheel with one hand, his gaze fixed on the curtain of rain ahead.

Lu Yan's peripheral vision swept over Lin Yuan's hand on the steering wheel.

He had crawled out from piles of dead bodies.

But in front of Lin Yuan, his combat intuition was sounding alarms wildly—the young boss in front of him was very dangerous.

"Hold on tight."

Lin Yuan didn't turn back, flooring the gas pedal.

The george patton tore through the rain curtain and sped toward the abandoned shipyard in the Eastern Suburbs.

At the same time.

On the outskirts of the abandoned shipyard in the Eastern Suburbs, at the top of a rusted gantry crane.

A tall woman wearing a black waterproof windbreaker was lying on the cold steel.

Rainwater dripped down her sharp jawline.

In front of her was a heavily modified heavy sniper rifle.

The crosshairs looked through the rain curtain, locking tightly onto the only path to the shipyard entrance.

"Target expected to arrive in ten minutes," the woman reported in a low voice in Japanese into her headset.

"Wind speed 3, humidity 80%. Preparing to snipe."